The Phantom of Casper High
by H. Mae
Summary: "It's this time of year again students, the annual play of Casper High." Mr. Lancer cleared his throat before continuing on his announcement. "And this year, the play chosen is – The Phantom of the Opera." (Romance-Mystery-Thriller-Suspense and of course DANNYxSAM all the way!)
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** **"It's this time of year again students, the annual play of Casper High." Mr. Lancer cleared his throat before continuing on his announcement. "And this year, the play chosen is – **_**The Phantom of the Opera**_**." **

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Danny Phantom' nor do I own 'The Phantom of the Opera'. This story is inspired by the book 'The Phantom of the Auditorium' by R. L. Stine. :3**

**Read and Review everyone~~~ **

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**The Phantom of Casper High**

Chapter 1

Sam's POV

I stashed the books I didn't need for this weekend into my locker and closed it just as I heard my name being called out. I whipped my head to the source and found two of my very best friends running towards me. The one with messy black raven hair and incredibly crystal-like blue eyes is Danny Fenton, he had his backpack on his shoulders while running in full speed. The one next to him with the thick rimmed glasses and red beret is Tucker Foley, who had his 'baby' PDA on one hand.

"Sam!" Danny called out once again.

They came to an abrupt halt just in front of me. "Sam you have to look at the bulletin board!" Tucker said before catching his breath.

"What is it?"

"Come on!" Danny grabbed my hand – making the butterflies in my stomach do somersaults _(since when were butterflies acrobats?)_ – dragging me to the bulletin board by the auditorium.

I saw a list on the board. It was the character lists and those who made it through the audition. I probably read the list three to four times not really believing what I saw. But there it was, black and white.

"Oh my gosh Danny! Tuck! We got the biggest parts!" It wasn't really Goth-like to get this excited but this is the annual school play we're talking about! Not to mention, I heard this year it would be something scary. And that was all it took for me to go for the audition.

Danny got the main lead as Phantom, and I got Christine. As for Tucker, he got the role of one of the new owners of the Theater. Pretty cool I must say but, honestly, I'm not really familiar with the story.

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Every year Casper High holds up a school play for all of Amity Park to witness. Talk about pressure. Last year wasn't as exciting as it was a few years ago, so now all of Casper High's student bodies are persistent to make it the best, along with the teachers. (This_ is_ a fund raiser…)

Right now all of us are meeting up in the auditorium. Mr. Lancer is the director (as usual) and Paulina is head of scenery and back grounds, as well as my understudy! I smirked as I passed by her scowl. _Paulina Sanchez, Ms. Popular of Casper High and ultimate boy-drooling magnet is MY understudy. Sweet_.

Tucker, Danny, and I took the first three seats in the third row. Mr. Lancer got up to the stage holding a piece of paper.

"It's this time of year again students, the annual play of Casper High." he cleared his throat before continuing on his announcement. "And this year, the play chosen is – _The Phantom of the Opera_."

Whispers started to spread around the hall. _What's up with them?_ I looked at Danny and Tucker beside me but they had the same confused look as I did.

I leaned forward and tapped a kid who was sitting in front of me. He turned around with a little worry in his eyes. He looked a grade older than me, with curly red hair flying all over the place.

"Uh, sorry. Do you have any idea what everyone is whispering about?" I asked.

He stared back incredulously at me. "You must not know about the legend then…" he said softly.

"What legend?" That got Danny and Tucker's attention. The two boys leaned in to listen to our conversation.

The ginger gulped hard and looked all the more frightened than before. "It-it's not my place to tell…" his voice quivering. "You can check it out in the library though. I found it in the book of Casper High's history."

Before I could get any more information Mr. Lancer had already quieted down the crowd. "That's enough students." He bellowed. "I know there are a few—concerns— about doing this play. But I assure you, the management is aware and everything will be alright."

A few of the students who were whispering before looked at each other worriedly. _This, I must see for myself. _

After a few more announcements and instructions as to what time the rehearsal starts and making up the backstage crew, we were finally able to leave.

"Library?" Tucker asked.

Danny and I nodded in response and started off in that direction.

"So what do you think we'll find out?" Danny asked out loud, not really pointing the question to anyone.

"I don't know." I replied honestly.

Tucker shrugged, "But, I'm sure it's big enough to make half the people who know about the play go nuts."

Finally we reached the school library. We hurried off to the information desk and asked the librarian for any history records of the school. She had white hair and wore glasses with pink frames as well as a beaded string that attached itself on either end of it. She narrowed her eyes a little on the screen as she typed down the key words. Then bringing a pen from behind her ear she wrote on a small piece of paper where we could find it.

**C4-15. **Well, time to get looking.

We found multiple books about the history of Casper High. Mostly year books, so it wasn't very helpful.

"Guys I found something." Tucker pulled out an old brown book from the very top shelf. It was tattered, twisted and torn around the edges.

"Must be really old." Danny said putting the book he was looking into aside. I did the same thing as Tucker placed the old book in front of us and opened it. The pages smelled like old rusty nails.

All three of us read through the happenings when our school was first built. It started out as a simple one story building. We stared at the old photograph that was in different shades and hues of brown. The school was a lot smaller than it is now with a few trees here and there. Turning the page we found the very first class of Casper High and just below that, a news caption: **First Opening of Casper High School of Amity Park.**

" 'Amity Park is proud to announce the first high school opening.' " Tucker read.

The next was a picture of someone cutting a ribbon, probably the first principal or the owner. A few more articles about the school and it's 'rising' popularity. And then finally something caught our eyes.

'_**School Play Gone Horribly Wrong**_**!'**

We looked at each other with uncertainty before Tucker swallowed hard and read aloud.

" 'Casper High's first school play had gone horribly wrong.' " Tucker started as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. " 'The long awaited Drama: _The Phantom of the Opera_ was cancelled due to the terrible accidents happening continuously to their stars. One reporter says – 'The children were painting a background picture on stage when suddenly the floor boards gave way and they all broke their legs.' – another source tells us that plenty of them were injured and many (as told by the children themselves) were 'threatened'.' "

I sucked in some air.

"So… we know now what will happen to us if we do this…" Tucker said.

"It could be coincidence." I stated.

"True, it could've all been just really a big accident – but then, why were some of the students today terrified?"

I looked to Danny to see if he had anything to say but he just stared at the article. His eyes never swaying, all his concentration seemed to be absorbed by what he was looking at. I wondered what he was so engrossed with at so I took a peek back at the page and tried to see if I had missed anything. I didn't notice anything else suspicious.

"What are you staring at Danny?" I finally asked.

Danny stayed quiet and just pointed at the picture of the first class that was enrolled. And there he was. At the far right corner of the photo stood a skinny boy with a goofy grin plastered on his face. The boy was Danny.

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**A/N: So that's the first chapter. What do you think? Bad? Good? Were the characters too OOC? Did something feel off? You be the judge, I accept constructive criticism but I don't like flames. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I am super happy with all your reviews :D Makes me wanna make this story even scarier. :-)) Oh and I love reading your thought's on 'WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN NEXT?!' It is most entertaining. Please don't stop. X3 I _might_ actually use your idea for the next chapter. _  
_**

**Summary (so far): Danny, Sam, and Tucker just got the biggest leads in the school play - _The Phantom of the Opera!_ But to their surprise, an old 'legend' seems to haunt it. Really bad and horrific things happened in the past when this play was in the making. Could it be true? Or is it just some kind of long tale the kids before made up? And what's this... Danny in an old photograph of Casper High's first few years?  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own DP, nor it's characters. Anything you _might _find similar to another story also isn't mine. **

**Now, on with the story! Enjoy~**

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Chapter 2

Danny's POV

_Me? But – that doesn't… _

"Danny…?" Sam looked very confused. I couldn't blame her; I didn't know what was going on either. And from the looks of it, neither did Tucker.

"Wow Danny how old _are _you?" he joked trying to lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"Maybe he's your great, great grandfather? Or something…?" she said trying to make sense of it. Sam looked back and forth from the picture to me. I have to admit that the likeness was... disturbing.

The librarian got our attention before we could reason with it further. She tapped on her wrist watch and the main doors.

"We better get going, it's getting late." Tucker stated.

Sam closed the book and checked it out. "Bring it back in a week." It was the first time the librarian spoke. Her voice seemed as ancient as the book itself. Sam simply nodded.

"I'm gonna read more about this 'play' incident." She said as she put the book in her purple spider bag.

"Let me fly you home." I suggested.

I know its kinda lame but I just feel like holding her right now. All that has happened today… it's a _little_ scary. I mean, what if it weren't all accidents? What if someone was trying to sabotage the play? _Okay Danny Fenton, no more horror movies._

Sam smiled at me. The kind that makes me feel all weak in the knees, and for a moment, I forgot about what we just learnt. You see she has this effect on me, like my entire world revolves around her (which it does.) One look at her smile and everything else seems to blur into the background. I know, I got it _bad_…

"Thanks Danny." She took my hand as we reached the school gates.

"Well I'm off now. See you two love birds tomorrow." Tucker waved.

"We're not love birds!" we said simultaneously. We looked at each other and I hoped the heat on my cheeks wasn't as obvious as I felt it was.

"So, let's go?" I wrapped my arm around her slender waist. She nodded at me and snaked her hands onto my shoulders.

The familiar tingling sensation washed over me as I changed to Danny Phantom. Then I took off towards the Manson's Residence. Sadly the unsettling feeling came back making the pit of my stomach feel heavy.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think they were all just accidents?"

The Goth girl stayed quiet for a while making me nervous. What was going on in her head? Sam was already all dark all over, are her thoughts as dark too? If they were, how dark are they?...

"I'm not quite sure." She said after a moment. "If they weren't, then someone out there was a sick bastard who hurt a lot of people… if they were, then…" she trailed off, the look she was making seemed serious.

I decided to postpone the questions until later when she had read the book, so I'd at least have a few answers. After a while I finally got to her balcony. I touched the floor of her bedroom and found myself drenched in dark purples, blues, and grays.

"Thanks again, Danny." She looked at me again and smiled.

I smiled back. "Anytime, Sam. Goodnight."

"'Night."

I went intangible and flew through her window and straight to my own home. _Sleep sounds good right now._

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The next day came faster that I had hoped. After my morning custom I ran down the stairs to get some breakfast. The play hadn't left my mind. _Today we're receiving our scripts._ I grabbed a piece of toast and spread some peanut butter on it. Just then my dad walked in with a new invention.

"Danny my boy!" he exclaimed.

"Hey dad." I replied shoving the food in my mouth. He wasted no time in explaining the new contraption he was holding – apparently it was another sort of ray gun but the charge was 10 times more powerful than the old ones. I gulped down the toast and tried not to look nervous, _gotta keep an eye out for that one… _

Mom showed up next in her usual jumpsuit and goggles. "Oh Danny, you better hurry up if you don't want to be late for school."

I looked at the clock which read 7:47am. _Shoot! _ I chugged down my orange juice and rushed out of the kitchen. But then stopped on my tracks and raced right back. My parents looked at me surprised.

"Mom, Dad, has our family always been in Amity Park?" I asked.

"Uh…" my dad scratched his chin and looked up. "I believe so Danny."

My mom nodded her head as well. "As far as I can remember, I think the Fenton family is rooted here in Amity."

I sighed a little.

"Is everything alright dear?" my mother asked.

Quickly flashing a smile to ease her worry I hugged them both and said my goodbyes before rushing out the door. Once outside I made sure I was out of sight before turning into Danny Phantom and flying to school. Hey, if you have super powers why not use it?

I reached the school just before the bell rang. _Phew!_

"There you are." I heard a voice behind me. I turned around and found Sam and Tucker.

"Hey guys."

"C'mon dude." Tucker started walking. "We better head to class before they mark us tardy again."

Our first class today was Geography, but since the play was just around the corner, the principal decided we use this time to start making the props. Mrs. Nettle our art teacher would be supervising us. As soon as we reached the classroom we took our seat at the far end. The class was in total chaos. Students were sitting on tables, others were throwing scrunched up paper and the rest were engaging in a spit-ball war. _Gross._

"I thought we were the ones running late," Tucker looked around. "Not the teacher."

Sam shuffled her hand in her bag trying to dig something out. She managed to pull the book she checked out from the library yesterday.

"Alright guys…" She started, her tone was serious. It made me gulp at what was in store for us this time.

"I did a little research." Sam continued. "And the reason they called these '_legends_' even when it was in the historical department, is 'cause the adults all think it was just bad luck." She opened up a page and scanned through quickly. "Many of these articles concerning the play were just pushed aside like some kind of rumor."

Tucker intervened, "So what you're saying is – it isn't real."

Sam shook her head. "What I'm saying is, all this news about the mishaps are true but anything regarding the culprit... not so much. The kids are the only ones who actually think _'someone' _did it. "

"And the adults all think it's just their imagination." I added. Sam looked at me and nodded once. "That's why it's called a legend among us." I finished.

"Typical." Tucker mumbled.

"Yeah, it became stories." Our Goth said. "As much as I'd like to believe something actually did happen to these kids, and it is not just some sick prank or anything, I gotta say I'm on the parents' side. There is no proof something otherworldly did this."

"With all the otherworldly stuff happening to us now-a-days?" Tucker scoffed. "I'm sticking with the legend."

"What about you Danny?" My two friends looked at me for a final answer.

"Honestly guys, I have no clue. I mean," I gestured towards Sam. "You're right that we can't put our trust in mere talk. Kids _can_ make stuff up. But then again," I looked at Tucker. "If it was something else behind all this then it is… also possible."

I was slightly disappointed with our lack of information, but Sam and Tucker's hypothesis can both be correct. Perhaps it did happen, but the parents just didn't believe 'how' it happened.

"There's more." Sam got our attention as she flicked open a new page and showed it to us. It was a picture of a new class a few years after the first play incident. Multiple newspaper cut outs we stuck around it, every head title just as disturbing as the last.

"This class suffered the same fate as the first one that tried to do the play." Her voice was cold. "But the injuries were worse and there was an actual death. The victim was hung by the neck with a noose."

I furrowed my brows together thinking hard about all this. "Its sounding more human than ghost to me."

"But ghost inventions weren't made that many years ago Danny." Tucker looked at me with tense stare. "What if the people just passed it on as – what Sam said before – a 'prank', because they don't know there actually is a ghost. Ghost's can possess people remember? What if it possessed someone to commit the crime?"

Sam lifted a finger to her chin and concentrated. "Alright Tuck, you peeked my interest. If it was a ghost, why would it be doing all these horrible things in the first place?"

"Not to mention," I joined in. "If it _is_ a ghost, what's it's attachment in this earth that keeps it from passing on?"

It was the sound of scraping chairs and desks that stopped our train of thought. The three of us looked up to see our classmates straightening themselves out as our Gym teacher, Ms. Tetzlaff walk in. _Wait, we don't have gym first period._

"I'm sorry students." She boomed from the front desk. "But Mrs. Nettle got into an accident."

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**A/N: Oh how I love making cliffies. :D So what do you guys think? Too fast? Too slow? Need more info? If it's confusing please ask, and I'll try my best to explain it in the next chapter (or inbox you right here). **

**Idea's for the plot are most welcome! (As I said earlier.) And I'll be awaiting your reviews. Until next Friday my dear readers. TTFN.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:**** Okay I'll be honest, I almost forgot to update today! :)) funny how life throws you off track sometimes. Anyways, I can never thank you enough for all the positive feed back. Thanks for the review guys! Now on-wards to chapter 3!**

**Disclaimer: ****This is getting old... *sigh* I do not own DP.**

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Chapter 3

Tucker's POV

"I'm sorry students. But Mrs. Nettle got into an accident." Ms. Tetzlaff's words sank into me making my blood run cold. Is it just a coincidence now? I turned my head to see how my friends were taking it and I was greeted with the same almost-color-drained expressions.

The class broke into gasps and a few whispers; no doubt it's about the legend.

"I knew it! It's happening! We shouldn't go on with the play!" a boy shot up from his seat. He was shaking like a Chihuahua. _Poor guy._

"Roland, sit down." The teacher narrowed her eyes at him. Although she looked angry, I couldn't help but notice the worry in her voice.

Roland reluctantly obeyed.

"She fell and hurt herself. Unfortunately she can't come to class so… Do some self study. I expect you to behave yourselves otherwise it'll be a hundred laps around the football field!" The gym teacher barked and left the room mumbling something about having a serious talk with the principal.

As soon as Ms. Tetzlaff closed the door one of the girls in the classroom spoke up. "It can't really be true right? The legend about the… play."

"I don't know." Another girl said quietly.

Dash huffed trying to look like the toughest among us. "You dweebs need to loosen up. So what if it's real? I'm sure we can take on _whoever_ is trying to sabotage our play."

"Or _it_." Paulina stated. "What if it's a ghost?"

Suddenly the inter-com at the corner of the room buzzed to life making us jump a little. It fuzzed in and out then the school's jingle opening came in. "Students who are participating in the school play, please proceed to the school's auditorium." Principal Ishiyama's voice poured out from speakers.

We all looked at each other with worried expressions. Sam had placed the book back in her backpack and filed in line with Danny. I joined in behind them. What exactly happened to Mrs. Nettle? I really liked her. She's the complete opposite of many of the teachers here in Casper High. Our walk towards the auditorium was quiet, save for a few murmurs here and there.

"Guys." Sam said getting our attention. "There's one more thing I should tell you."

"Later." Danny suggested. "When there're less people."

Sam was about to protest but we were already nearing out destination. The principal waited for all of us to take a seat.

"I have been informed by a few sources," she looked at our Gym teacher and a few of the students. "That this play, in their best regard, must not be continued."

"It shouldn't." I heard someone whisper.

"But," Principal Ishiyama continued, "I can't let that happen."

The next thing that happened seemed like a blur. Well, I guess that's natural when you're suddenly shown something utterly horrific and then being drowned in screams.

"AHH!" Star wailed as she pointed to the ceiling. Her face was twisted in horror.

There, just above Principal Ishiyama's head was our art teacher's body – hanging limply with a noose tied on her neck. Her hair was a mess and her eyes seemed to roll to the back of her head. Some sick bastard decided to reply to our principals' statement with hanging our teacher! Everyone started panicking. Dash and Kwan hugged each other shaking like mad.

"I'm going ghost!" Danny hissed crouching under the velvet seats.

He flew at max speed towards Mrs. Nettle and made them both intangible so he could easily slip her out of the ropes. Gently he placed her on the hard wooden stage. Mr. Lancer and a few teachers along with Ms. Ishiyama ran to them. Sam and I followed suit and looked at the pale clammy body of our art teacher.

"Is-is, is she…" I couldn't bring myself to say the word.

Mr. Lancer shook his head. "She's still alive. Her pulse is weak, but she's alive." He was holding up two fingers on her neck then moved on to her wrists.

An ambulance was called and no later than a few minutes our school was swarming with police's. They interviewed all of us and wanted to interview Phantom too but he seemed to have disappeared as soon as he came. I won't lie when I say none of us could talk properly.

The cheerleaders were stuttering, the jocks could hardly form sentences, and the rest of us could barely blink. The teachers were definitely freaking out, but managed to utter a few things. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but it's kinda hard not to listen to something that's happening right next to you.

"…she slipped and fell on the staircase?" two officers were in the middle of questioning Ms. Tetzlaff and one of the nurses.

"Yes," The nurse confirmed. "Ms. Tetzlaff here brought her to the clinic earlier this morning. I bandaged up her ankle after I applied some creams; it was… starting to bruise up. I-I think she was pulled."

"Right," The second officer said. "And where were you when she disappeared?"

"I was gathering up the students who were supposed to get shots today." The nurse gripped onto her white uniform skirt. "I asked her if she needed anything but she just laughed and said no. So I… left. B-but I didn't know–"

"It's alright Ma'am." The first officer tried to comfort her. "We'll find out who did this."

The nurse bit her lip like she was debating on whether to say anymore or not. She clenched her fist and opened her mouth. "There's one more thing…"

The officers turned to look at her.

"The – the… uh the bruise… it's a hand. It looks like a hand."

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After the short interviews I rejoined with Sam and Danny. Sam buried her face in her hands and Danny was trying to comfort her. As much as I am dying to get these lovebirds together, it wasn't time for teasing.

"Hey." I said.

Danny looked up and tried to smile but it was clearly fake. I heard our Goth sniff then exhale, something she does when situations became a little too overwhelming. When she came down she ran a hand over her thick locks.

"Think they'd still go on with the play?" Sam asked.

I looked at Danny for an answer but he only looked at me with the same uncertain expression. Our silence seemed to satisfy her enough though. I guess she didn't know what to think of all this either. As soon as the interviews were done the school gave an early dismissal, and as much as I wanted to go home I couldn't help the heavy feeling in my gut. I don't know if it was because of what I just witnessed or the fear that the legend may actually be true. Being right was always awesome, especially when it's an argument (or at least something like that) with Sam, because being right means you win, but right now – oh how I desperately wanted to be wrong.

The three of us trudged down the streets towards our houses, not saying a word. One by one we gestured our goodbye's and when I finally reached my house I ran for the computer. I just had to know what we were up against, that is, if I find anything.

Quickly I researched on 'The Phantom of the Opera' play which directed me to many extremely old news paper articles, all about the same things Sam was talking about. Speaking of Sam, she was supposed to tell us something before we went to the auditorium. _What was it about? _

There were many writings on what happened to the kids. The headings and captions made me shudder: one kid's arms were forcibly turned to bend the wrong way; another, lost a few fingers and toes. These articles were starting to seriously scare me, but it was getting me nowhere to finding out what or who was behind all this. I spaced out a little and my thoughts drifted back to the interview I accidentally over heard. _Perhaps I should tell Danny and Sam about it_… I remembered Mrs. Nettle's face, she looked terrified, and her mouth hung open in a silent scream. Another chill ran down my spine. Shaking my head and screwing shut my eyes I tried to make the images go away. I was almost losing hope of finding anything new about all this until I came across a picture. It was the boy who looked like Danny.

"Creepy." I murmured to myself.

They looked exactly the same from head to toe except for one major difference which was his eyes that were dark unlike Danny's that were light blue. Of course this was an old picture so everything was either black and white or brown. The caption below the picture stated: _**14-year old boy, Peter Fenton, believes his Ghost theory of the unfortunate school play to be correct. **_For a second I almost forgot all about Mrs. Nettle.

_I think I just found what Sam was about to tell us._

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**A/N:**** *Whew* Finally got that done and over with. ****  
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	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Oh how I'm loving all your reviews. :D It makes me so happy~. Thank you thank you thank you! Okay so, I decided to introduce Valerie in the next chapter. I never intended to put her in the story in the first place, more like make her a cameo of some sort, which is hard to do with writing. But we'll see. I'm making things up as I go. Lastly, this _is _a Danny Phantom story, so say hello to Skulker and his new toys. **

**Now, on to chapter 4. (We don't need to do disclaimers now right? It's obvious I don't own DP.) **

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Chapter 4

"I tried to tell you." Sam looked indifferently.

"Woah." Was all Danny could muster up.

Our favorite trio at the moment was at the Nasty Burger. It had been exactly 24 hours after the incident with Mrs. Nettle, but even with that much time in between, it didn't help any of the witnesses to settle down. They were able to visit her, she looked much better than before, but she was still a little shaken up.

The police had already questioned her over and over again, but she goes with the same reply. She doesn't remember a thing. Retrograde Amnesia, that's what the doctors said. It is a form of amnesia where someone is unable to recall events that occurred _before_ the development of the amnesia. They told the authorities it was a normal and temporary phase, and banging her with questions at the moment will get them nowhere.

"So he really is, like my great, great grandpa." The young halfa said.

Tucker nodded and munched on his fries. Usually he'd be up and at 'em when it came to junk food, but who could blame any of them for losing their usual appetite? The chocolate skinned boy pulled out a few papers from his bag. He printed the lesser gruesome articles of the supposed accidents of the play and the article on Peter Fenton. But he still hadn't told his friends of what he heard about Mrs. Nettle.

"Peter Fenton…" Sam mumbled as she took the papers concerning him. "There isn't much written about him. All that's here is the normal birth date, death date, relatives…" she continued on scanning the sheets.

"And that he was labeled as mentally insane." Tucker said.

"As in Vlad mentally insane or my parent's kind of insane?" Danny questioned. It wasn't like he saw his parents as loonies, but some of the times they were kind of 'eccentric'. Of course that was before Danny learnt ghosts were actually true. Vlad on the other hand was broken hearted type, the kind of broken hearted that will stop at nothing to get Madeline and make her his wife.

"Mentally insane as in the Nut House."

Sam bit her lip and pulled out one of the papers from the pile.

"Look at this," she and Danny were sitting side by side so it wasn't difficult to share. Tucker just looked down at his food contemplating whether to continue eating or not, after all, he had already read the stack of papers about a hundred times.

"It says here that he was normal till the play. After that he kept going on about _phantom._" The Goth beauty remarked.

The young halfa opened his mouth to reply but was cut off by a shrill scream. "Ah! Ghost!" A blue mist escaped his lips. The boy sighed ducking under the table and came out as Danny Phantom. Actually right now he was a little thankful for a ghost attack. These past two days was starting to seriously creep him out, and he fights _ghosts_ for crying out loud. It shouldn't get any creepier than that.

He flew up to get a birds' eye view of what or who exactly was terrorizing the town this time. It was none other than Skulker. His armor seemed to have been polished and his usual ray guns were replaced with bigger ones.

"New toys Skulker?" Danny mocked as he dropped down in front of the ghost menace.

"There you are you annoying little whelp." Skulker grinned maliciously and pointed his newly added gadget towards the halfa. "Like my new addition? This is just the first one of many, and I thought of what an honor it would be to try it out on you."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Danny sucked in as much air as his lungs could take in and forced it out as a blast of ghostly wail. The robotic ghost instinctively formed an X with his arms to protect himself but the blast was too strong and sent him hurdling to the building behind him.

Skulker quickly got back up in offensive mode and locked on his target. With a small push of red button, a white and green missile shot out of his cannon hand and headed straight for Danny. The boy flew up and so did the missile, he went back down and it followed him there as well. As Danny was busy, Skulker aimed 3 more missiles that locked on Danny's ectoplasmic radiation.

"Well this can't be good." Danny looked at all 4 missiles dashing towards him.

Quickly he flew through the city, making sure to make sharp turns and halts in hopes of crashing the deadly object into something other than himself. He flew through a sign board and managed to destroy one of them, leaving a toothless Vlad holding a toothpaste bottle. Danny couldn't help but snicker. He never really did like that brand.

Unfortunately his luck was running short and one of the remaining 3 missiles caught up with him. He made a ghost shield around himself but the impact of the explosion was too much for him to take. He crashed into a pile of bricks just outside a factory. Forcing himself to get back up on his feet he found his two friends running towards him.

"Danny!" Sam's voice was filled with worry.

"I'm fine." The halfa managed to croak.

Tucker and Sam helped him up as he shook his head to get the ringing in his ears to stop. As soon as it did he looked up and saw the last two missiles heading straight for them.

"Duck!" He pulled both his friends, Tucker by the wrist and Sam by the waist and fell for cover. Another explosion but thankfully no one got hurt.

"One last missile left." Danny glared at it and shot back up to the sky. "And I know just who to give it to."

He continued down his way through an ally with the missile hot on his trail. He eyed Skulker a few blocks from the Nasty Burger restaurant terrorizing poor civilians. Danny picked up his speed.

"Hey Skulker!" He shouted.

The ghost turned to the source of the voice and went in contact with Danny's fist. Without wasting any time he gave Skulker another blow on the stomach with his knee, and proceeded to a judo back flip throwing his enemy to the missile. Explosion. Blue light from a thermos. And a high five between 3 friends.

"Job well done Danny." Tucker smirked.

"_I will get out of here you little wart!" _Skulker's voice exclaimed through the small metallic object in Danny's hands. _"And when I do I'll make sure to skin you alive!" _

The three friends glared at the thermos. "Whatever." Danny said.

"_Unless of course you are already dead by the time I do."_

Now usually these kinds of comments don't affect them, but the way Skulker said it this time made them a little uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" Sam demanded, when she didn't get an answer she snatched the thermos from Danny's hands and shook it fiercely earning a ragged scream from inside.

"Whoa,whoa!" Tucker took it back from her. "Easy there tiger, you won't get any answers like that."

Sam snorted and rolled her eyes.

"_You need to control your girlfriend Phantom." _Skulker groaned.

"He's/She's not my boyfriend/girlfriend!" The two love birds retorted in unison.

"Right." It was Tucker's turn to roll his eyes. "Anyways, Skulker what the heck did you mean back there?"

"_Oh don't you know?" _the robotic ghost mocked at them. _"Perhaps it's best you don't know then."_

"Tell us, or I'm giving you back to Sam." Danny threatened.

"_No! Well… I thought you'd know that much at least. I guess not since the legend of that play is older than you three combined." _

"The play?" Tucker looked amused.

"You know about it too?" Danny asked.

"_Maybe…maybe not, maybe a little more than you do." _The ghost teased.

"Quit stalling Skulker!" Sam shouted.

"_Alright! Alright!" _Skulker wasn't seen but it was evident in his voice that he was scowling. _"Bad things will happen if you do that play." _

A familiar cold chill ran down the spines of the teens. They glanced at each other nervously.

"_If I were you I wouldn't do it. Wrap up the script, hide it somewhere and never open it up again." _The ghost continued. _"Be afraid, be very afraid…"_

* * *

**A/N:**** I couldn't help myself. I had to end it that way! I just had to! :-)) As cliche as it is... Now that we know Skulker knows about the 'legend', how scary do you think the culprit of this whole mess is? :3 **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:**** Another a/n before the story. This is probably the shortest chapter so far... is it? Oh well, I'll try to make the next one longer. :-) Thank you for all the positive feedback, and also I decided I'll be sticking with Danny's P.O.V. If you think it should be something else pm me, or put it in your review. Any will do. Now on to the story! **

**I do not own DP. **

* * *

Chapter 5

Danny's P.O.V

I was pacing back and forth in my room. Sam was sitting on my bed drumming her fingers at the back of her hands. Tucker clicking away on my computer. As you have guessed, Skulker's words really put us in an uncomfortable fit.

"Danny," Sam spoke up breaking the silence that had been around us for the last few hours. "Stop. You might make a hole with all your pacing around."

I sighed and sat down next to her. "Sorry…" She patted me soothingly on my back. When I dared to steal a glance at her I found myself unable to look away. She was doing that thing again, smiling brighter than the sun, well to me anyways. I felt a few weights on my shoulder suddenly disperse.

A cough brought me back to reality. I closed my eyes tight and blinked. _Oh right, Tucker's here. _I looked up at him. He had a crooked teasing grin, but he didn't bother to do anything further.

"We need to sort this out." I said coming back to the main problem.

"I agree." Tucker sighed and turned around fully to face us. "There's… something else I haven't told you."

"You mean besides the whole Peter Fenton thing?" Sam raised her brow.

Tucker looked a little guilty. "Remember that time we were interviewed by the police and all?"

"How can I forget?" Sam replied deadpanned.

"Right." Tucker cleared his throat. "I overheard something about Mrs. Nettle. She fell off the stairs, they said she was pulled."

"Pulled?" Sam asked surprised. "Who in the world will pull Mrs. Nettle and get her hurt? She's the best teacher in school."

"Everyone loves her." I added.

"Yeah." He pushed his glasses up. "The bruise on her ankle looks like a hand."

Silence fell upon us. I could swear we were all in deep thought because when the door knocked it made all of us jump.

I hurried to my feet to answer. Jazz came to view, her face looking a little startled.

"You okay little brother?" She asked. "You look a little… pale."

"What?" I asked dumbly. "I mean no. No, I'm fine."

She pressed her lips together like she normally does when she isn't sure of something. "Okay." I let out a little sigh of relief as she let it slide. "Mom said she and Dad will be out for the night."

I nodded and said a quick thank you. Does Jazz know what happened to Mrs. Nettle? Surely everyone in Casper High knows about it by now. I turned to my friends.

"Movies?"

* * *

The next day was fairly slow. Well as slow as it could be. The cast had just finished rehearsing half of scene one and we've all started to pitch in to help the props crew. As much as I love to help people, painting backdrops were back-killers.

"My back is killing me." Valerie complained. She was stooping low painting the details of a wall of the catacombs. Valerie isn't part of the cast, but she volunteered to help with the backstage crew.

"Can you believe it?" Sam sighed dropping her script on the dressing table and picking up a paintbrush. "They're still going on with the damn play even after Mrs. Nettle's accident."

Tucker snorted in response then proceeded to fluffing up the crape paper flowers.

"Hey!" Paulina screeched. "No idling around, the play is just around the corner and we want fabulous props." She's pretty bossy and rather strict, but she gets the job done.

"It's a fund raiser isn't it?" I said after Paulina was out of ear-shot.

"Still." Sam argued. "Our teacher almost got killed and all they can think about is –"

"Students!" Mr. Lancer called out cutting off Sam. She sighed (yet again) and mumbled something under her breath.

Our director held up his clipboard motioning the students to look at him. Beside him was a man, maybe late or early 20's, it's hard to tell with the slight slouch on his shoulders. A nest of brown waves rested on his head which was swept to one side carelessly. A few locks almost covered his left eye. His eyes were blue, like really, really, blue. It stands out on his pale thin face.

"As you all know, Mrs. Nettle is still recovering in the hospital." Mr. Lancer started. The name of Mrs. Nettle brought me back to reality. I tore my gaze away from the stranger.

"But as you know the saying in show biz, t_he show must go on!_" he continued and gestured for the man beside him to step forward. "This is Mr. Mathews, he'll be the substitute for Mrs. Nettle for the time being."

I heard the girls start to whisper excitedly behind me. Mr. Mathews' sunken blue orbs scanned through us with a glint in his eye.

"Well," Mr. Lancer looked through the clipboard again and nodded before handing it to the new substitute. "I'll leave you to it then, Mr. Mathews."

"Yes. Thank you again, Mr. Lancer." Mr. Mathews smiled and bowed politely. I noticed he had a British accent. He turned his gaze towards us again after Lancer left.

"Hello students. My name's John Mathews, and I'll be helping you with your play from now onwards." He said.

Suddenly the air seemed to lift and swarm of girls rushed towards him bombarding him with questions, mostly about his personal life. I don't get girls sometimes. I mean the guy is like twice your age.

"Not too shabby." I heard Valerie dusting her hands. I turned towards her with a '_seriously?_' kind of face. She returned it back with half-hearted shrug.

"Yeah. Not too shabby, for a teacher." Sam agreed much to my displeasure.

Shaking my head I looked back at our new substitute. A flare of jealousy sparked in my sight for a minute till I noticed he was drowning with hormone-crazed teenage girls, and he didn't seem to like the attention.

"Wow it's like all of them forgot what happened to the last art teacher." Tucker pointed out as more of the cast and crew gathered about Mr. Mathews.

I stared at the man for a few more seconds before turning my attention to my best friend. "Yeah," I agreed. "I wonder what really happened to her."

"If she remembers anything now." Tucker finished. "So, do you have any clue why they continued on with the play?"

I snorted at that. "No clue." I answered.

"Think we'll end up like Mrs. Nettle?"

"I won't allow that to happen."

* * *

**A/N:**** My sister went all "THIS IS TOTALLY JAMES MCVOY! - Except for the sunken eyes and thin face..." on the substitute teacher. :-)) Girls, such complicated creatures. Anyways, I _might_ add a chapter randomly this week, (to say sorry for this very short chapter...) and in the future chapters, I _might_ ask you guys to pick an option. Of course not all the time, only when things get intense and junk... and you have to make a decision. So Danny, Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and all the other little humans lives are in your hands. No pressure (these are all just plans after all). Oh and the romance, yeah I'm working on that slowly by slowly. I'll make it more romantic as time passes by don't worry. **

**That's all for today. Mmm... really not impressed, but oh well. TTFN! **


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: I said I would post something during the week, and so here it is. Don't forget to review please, it'll help me a lot when you tell me what you think of it. ;-) **

******Enjoy~!**

* * *

Chapter 6

Did I ever tell you how annoying crouching on the ground was? Your legs start to go numb after some time, your feet feels like it's swelling, and your back will just start murdering you. After the girls cooled down with Mr. Mathews we all went back to painting the backdrops.

At the moment, Val, Tucker and I are painting this huge cave scene. (It's supposedly my 'hide out') _Pretty cool for a secret lair_, I say to myself, but the positive thought did nothing to make my back and shoulder ache bearable. I dropped my brush back into the small pail of yellow paint and flexed my muscles. I hissed when I felt something snap.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow…"

Tucker looked up at me. "Dude, what happened?"

"Jeez Ghost Boy," Valerie raised a judgmental brow. "You can take a zap from your enemies but you can't take a little paint job?" Yep, Valerie knows about me being Phantom.

I narrowed my eyes at her a little. "I can take it okay? It's just… stooping down, for that long…" I trailed on.

"Mhmm…" The Afro-American girl suppressed a giggle. I glared at her again half half-heartedly.

"Why don't you go to the nurse's office?" Tucker suggested. "We'll tell Mr. Mathews if he asks where you are."

I looked at Valerie who just shrugged and nodded towards the door. I sent them a 'thanks' look before jogging up to the double doors. Flexing and rubbing my sore shoulders again I auto-piloted myself to the Ms. G's office.

* * *

"Um, hello?" I knocked at the door with a bright red cross over the small window.

Ms. G was on her table reading or maybe doing some paper work. She straightened her back as soon as I got in and gave me a questioning look. Ms. G is probably the second most 'liked' employee in this school (after Mrs. Nettle). During the first few days she got here, almost the entire male student body came in the clinic pretending to be sick. Sam said something about us boys being weird and raging hormones. _Oh, I get it now… _It's the same with the girls and Mr. Mathews.

Anyway, it's probably best if I gave a description about her. Ms. G has really white porcelain skin that's dotted with freckles. Very light, but it's definitely there. Her hair is red, with streaks of copper that she ties up in a bun at the top of her head, and her eyes are the palest of green. At first I suspected her to be Spectra in disguise again, ready to suck people of their energy. Thankfully I was wrong.

"My shoulders are killing me." I say flatly.

Ms. G got up and went to the glass cupboard filled with various kinds of medicine. She came back with a red tube and a box of patches. "Sit down dear and remove your shirt."

I blushed a little but remembered there was no way I could do it on my own. Sitting down I peeled off my white t-shirt and turned my back on her.

"Cream or patch?" she asked with a soft tone.

"Er… patch." I said looking down. I heard the cardboard box open and a package rip.

"So, how did you manage to do this to yourself?" Ms. G patted the patch on and left back to her working area. She pulled out a slip and started writing.

"Painting." My voice was a little muffled as I was putting my shirt back on.

"Mmm… name?" she asked without looking up.

"Danny, Danny Fenton." I answered.

"Alright Danny, you should be all better after a few minutes' rest." She smiled and handed me a slip of paper. I flashed a small smile back and laid down. The heat from the patch was already seeping into my aching muscles.

Ms. G took her seat back in front of her office table with heaps of papers all around. I would be lying if I said I was completely relaxed. I mean, my previous art teacher was here before she got hanged. Does Ms. G feel comfortable being here alone? What if it happens again? Whoever is responsible for this is really sick. I sighed, _I need to rest, the cops are doing all they can, so everything will be okay. _

Deciding that it was impossible to be 100% at ease with all those thoughts running in my head, I tried to focus on something else, like how quite it was in here. It was really quite, all I could hear was the scratching of Ms. G's pen and the ticking of the clock. The footsteps outside were almost inaudible, perhaps this room was soundproof to some extent? I guessed so it would help the patients sleep and all. I knew I don't like noise when I'm under the weather.

"Hey, Ms. G?"

"Yes?" she didn't look up from her work.

"Is this place sound proof?" I asked.

"Well, you can say that. The walls are anyways, not the door." She pointed with her pen to the small gap between the door and the tiles.

"Right." I said. "So, I was wondering..." _Should I ask? ... Oh what's the harm. _"Why couldn't anyone hear Mrs. Nettle back then?"

The mention of her name made Ms. G freeze, but I couldn't stop myself from talking, the words just poured out of my mouth.

"Wouldn't anyone hear her struggle? I mean surely she wouldn't go down without a fight, would she? Ms. G?" I waited for a few minutes and I got up from the cot when I noticed my questions were not being answered.

Ms. G's face was pale, almost as pale as Mr. Mathews. "Um… Ms. G?" the sound of my footsteps advancing to her snapped her out of trance.

"Are you okay?" I looked at her pale green eyes, which were much paler than usual. She was scared, darting her eyes around the room as if someone was in here other than the two of us.

"I-I don't k-know…" she stammered. "This is all my fault, I shouldn't… shouldn't have left her alone…"

It was weird how composed she was till the mention of Mrs. Nettle's accident. She seemed like she was about to cry so I didn't press her with questions anymore. Honestly, the way she's suddenly acting right now is a little creepy.

"It's not your fault Ms. G. You didn't know what was going to happen." I tried to be comforting like Jazz but I thing all I did was tense her up all the more. "You, couldn't have… right?"

A blue wisp escaped from my lips before I could get her answer.

* * *

**A/N:**** Mmm, much better I think than the last. So...? **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Okay, I know I'm a little late with the posting, but here it is. Tell me what you think, I had writers block earlier today and I just spaced out. **

* * *

Chapter 7

"Okay, places people! Places!" Mr. Lancer called out from the audience seat. With the usual script and clipboard at hand, he waved for the actors and actresses to get into place. "Cue music!" He bellowed to the crowd of students at base of the stage – our orchestra. Who knew our school could play all these instruments?

The band started and a group of dancers in leather beaded tops and slit skirts flooded in. Clanging their chained hands together, they danced to the middle of the stage and started to perform. Yep, you guessed it; because of the play nearing very soon, the costumes were under 'URGENT' and were delivered just this morning. Mr. Lancer said it was very important to learn how to perform with costumes on, you know, so we could get the hang of things.

I stood behind the scenes and watched. Their tops stopped above their midriff, and their skirts' slit went all the way up to their belts. The only reason we don't see their underwear is because they're wearing skin toned tights. My eyes trailed on one dancer after the other, until it reached a certain raven haired beauty.

Sam was very graceful, and her expression mirrored her movements. I smirked and felt a hint of pride, _no wonder she was picked for the main lead. _Her hair bounced and swayed around her as she twirled and dipped low. In that moment all I could see was Sam. She had my complete and utter undivided attention. Key word: _had_.

"Danny." A voiced hissed softly behind me. Reluctantly I turned my gaze and found Valerie holding a clear plastic bag with something dark and silky inside. "Mr. Mathews is looking for you."

She handed the package to me and pointed at the costume department.

"Thanks." I say quickly before making my way through the backstage.

The room was a little bit bigger than a normal sized classroom. There were no windows, just racks and racks of costumes and crates. A few boxes were littered in the corner with the words 'FRAGILE' and 'HANDLE WITH CARE' stamped with red. _Must be more of the props, _I thought. A few students were around, piling up clothes and marking some with those white scotch tapes.

"Ah, there's my Phantom." Mr. Mathews grinned at me. He had a tape measure around his neck and a pillow of needles tied on his wrist. "Have you tried on your costume yet?"

I shook my head. "It came in a little late."

"Hmm." He nodded understandingly. "Alright, try it on now, so we can see if we need to make any adjustments."

I made my way to the back of the room till I reached a row of changing booths, with nothing more than a curtain for privacy. I got into a vacant one and closed the curtains, then I proceeded to open the package. Okay, I have to admit I was pretty excited. I mean, I'm the Phantom of Amity Park, and now I'm also the Phantom in _The Phantom of the Opera._ How awesome's that?

_I wonder what kind of costume I got._ After slipping into it, I turned to the mirror to have a full view of myself. A very formal looking tuxedo, complete with a silky black vest was the first thing I saw. Then a very long cape, much like a Dracula's except without the tall collars. Inside was creamy white, and the outside was smooth black. I packed up my clothes and stuffed them inside the empty plastic bag.

Before I could step out of the booth I suddenly heard some kind of static in my ears. _What the...?_ I looked around to check if there were any PA systems or intercoms around but found nothing. _Must've been my imagination… _however, I stopped where I was and strained my ears to listen again. A low whisper started to hum, but it was too soft to understand.

I strained my ears some more and tilted my head a little to the side. What was it saying…? It was getting louder now. Louder… and louder… and louder until it shrieked in deafening pitch –

_STOP!_

I covered my ears and almost yelled.

I panted; cold sweat started forming on my forehead and neck. Slowly I removed my hands from my ears, cautious about the static whispers. I listened.

Nothing.

No more whispers.

No more shrieks.

"What the hell was that…" I croaked.

* * *

"Very nice Phantom." Mr. Mathews said approvingly as I got out.

I had already calmed myself down, but for some reason I shuddered at the way he said _phantom. _"Uh, just Danny will be fine Mr. Mathews."

"So how is it, _Danny_? It isn't tight is it?" He asked as he circled around me.

"No." I answered. "Everything's good."

"Good." He patted me on the back and handed me a shoe box and a mask. "Put these on. Do hurry, Mr. Lancer was calling for you."

I sat on one of the stools and quickly changed into the black shoes in the box. _Fancy._ Looking at the mask, I felt an odd tug at the pits of my stomach.

"You know, these costumes came from the original first cast." Mr. Mathews said airily. He was holding up a dress with incredible amount of frills. "So much history."

Mr. Mathews' eyes seemed to glaze up, like he wasn't on this earth anymore.

* * *

"Okay, in this scene the Phantom appears inside the mirror." Mr. Lancer had the script rolled up in his palm. He was flinging it around in the directions where he wanted us to go. If there was one person working hard on this play, I'd say it was Mr. Lancer.

"Christine," he looked at Sam. "You have to be entranced, as if his voice is hypnotizing you."

Sam had on another dress. It was a simple nightgown and a thin sheer robe that trailed on behind her. She nodded at the instructions given to her and took her position. The rest of the stage crew huddled up to watch us, and the people in charge of the lights started to fumble around with the switches.

The background lights dimmed and the music started to play. I almost missed my cue if it weren't for Sam who mouthed the word 'go'.

Opening my mouth I tried to find my voice but it wasn't there. Then all of a sudden the orchestra's music was gone. The lights seemed too bright it blinded me. And all I could hear was static.

Stop…

…Stop…

…STOP…

…STOP!

STOP!

STOP!

"Nooo!" I shouted and covered my ears. I sank to my knees and bit my tongue so hard until I tasted iron.

"Danny!"

I glanced up and found her frightened face. My eyes grew wide when I noticed something moving right above her.

"Sam, watch out!"

She looked up and screamed. The backdrop was closing in fast. I phased through the glass in front of me and pushed her aside. We rolled to the edge of the stage when we heard screams and a loud _THUD! _

Sam was breathing raggedly underneath me as I propped myself with my elbows. I found my heart was beating twice as fast from before and my head was pounding. We looked to where she was standing just seconds ago. _Oh gosh… she almost… almost… _

"Are you okay?"

She swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded.

"Thank God." I hugged her tight. She hugged me back still a little shaken.

"Guys!" Tucker and Valerie came running towards us. "Are you alright?"

I answered for the both of us. Our two Afro-American friends sighed in relief. Suddenly we heard a loud gasp, and found everyone staring at us. No, not at us. Behind us. Slowly we lifted up our gazes towards the backstage drop. It was a beautiful painting of a moonlit scenery but it was ruined with scrawls in thick red paint (or which I hoped was paint…).

'_STOP!'_

* * *

**A/N: Oh my gosh, was that horrible? I feel so... ... ... I blame writers block. Gah! I hope it was scary enough. **

**TTFN my readers. (Hopefully I can make it even scarier.)**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: I know I didn't post anything last Friday. So I'm making up for it now, I made this chapter _extra _long. So please forgive me! Life was being difficult. **

**Okay, I'll stop talking now... Enjoy! And don't forget to review. ;-) **

* * *

Chapter 8

"Okay, so no one wants to talk?" Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow at every one of us. Did he seriously think we did it? I wanted to say something but I was frozen in place. I looked around me and found everyone else was just as shocked.

"We didn't do it Mr. Lancer." Finally Valerie spoke up. "The backstage crew worked hard on that. We even stayed in extra hours at school to finish it." Paulina nodded bitterly. For the first time, she stayed in school other than for cheerleading practice.

Mr. Lancer sighed and rubbed his temples. He was clearly trying to stay calm. "Everyone take 10. I need to sort this out…" he trailed off calling Valerie and Paulina aside. They had split the work in two, since the Hispanic girl was also Sam's understudy.

I decided to go out for some air. Being inside that place seemed to suffocate me. What was going on? Who was crazy enough to mess with the backdrop? I mentally winced imagining if the rest of the backdrops were the same. And what were those whispers I heard –

"Danny." Sam's voice cut through my thoughts. I was so concentrated on figuring it out, I didn't realize I was already at the back side of the school. Sighing, I sat on one of the benches.

"What happened back there?" She took her seat next to me. "It was like you were in another world."

"I don't know." I told her honestly. "It was quiet all of a sudden and then you almost got…" I sighed again and closed my eyes. When I opened them the first thing I saw was Sam's purple orbs. They were so full of concern and confusion.

It was kinda cute how worried she was.

"I heard voices." I confessed. "In my head."

She became silent. Her perfectly purple painted lips were pressed into a straight line.

"Where?" she asked seriously.

"In the changing room…" I toned down my voice a little. "And on stage."

"And you're sure it's not just your imagination?"

I gave her a '_Seriously?' _look. She just flung her arms up in defense and shrugged, giving me a _'Cant-be-too-careful-nowadays.'_ I shook my head and looked down. There were weeds growing around the bench legs. Staring at it, I couldn't help but feel like our school was doing a lousy job at maintenance. There were weeds all over the place.

"Would it kill them to clean up a little, it is the back of the school, but people can still see. They have eyes." I muttered to myself, but Sam heard it.

"I know what you mean." She snorted. "The bathrooms need a little cleaning too."

"What do they pay these guys for?" I said.

"To sit down all day or hang in the janitor's closet." She replied sarcastically. I laughed lightly imagining the janitors watching football in a closet.

"They could be there right now watching a football game." I voiced my thoughts.

"Nah." She said. "Can't get a good signal, not that I've been there or anything, though I still think it's bad."

"'Cause our school's too cheap to afford it?"

"Yeah, they're probably just watching the security cameras."

Realization dawned upon us. _Security cameras_… why haven't we thought of that? Slowly Sam and I turned to face each other; I could tell she was thinking the same thing. It was right in front of us!

"We could find out who messed with the backdrop." I didn't want to sound too excited, but this was progress we were making.

"And who messed with Mrs. Nettle." She added. I suddenly felt cold thinking of her.

"Guys." Tucker called out from the double doors. "Get back in here, it's past 10 minutes. And Mr. Lancer wants to practice with the main leads."

Sam and I got up to follow him, but not after noticing something move in the shows across the street. I stared at the alley filled with garbage bins and black plastic bags waiting for whatever it was to move again. But everything was still. I finally tore my gaze away when I felt someone tug on my sleeve.

"C'mon Phantom." Sam smirked.

I grinned back, maybe was imagining things.

* * *

"That's a wrap people!" Mr. Lancer said with a ghost of a smile. Everyone sighed in relief that nothing happened after the accident earlier. We were all on our toes the entire time.

"We start again tomorrow, same time. Don't be late." He reminded us, we replied in a chorus of yes' and grunts before hurrying to the changing room. I really wanted to get this costume off me; it feels weird knowing that someone from way back who was also plagued with the play's curse wore these very clothes.

As soon as I entered the changing room, Mr. Mathews was already bustling around with a few of his assistants. They were running up and down making sure the costumes weren't 'accidentally' damaged. Thankfully, I managed to slip in and slip out without him noticing. Not that I purposely wanted to avoid him or anything…

It was too soon when night fell, picking up my backpack filled with _Fenton-Guns _and thermoses; I said my infamous catch phrase and turned into Phantom. I was about to fly off till I heard a light knock on my door.

_Crap._

It creaked open ever so silently. "Danny?" my sister called out. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Jazz." I answer her. She knows about my 'other-life' and it's all cool between us. "What do you want?"

She let herself in and closed the door behind her. "I just wanted to make sure you got all your screws in your head nice and tight before you go."

"Look, if you're going to stop me, then good luck." I tell her. "There's no way I'm backing down now. Those security camera's might be able to show us who the culprit is. Who messed with Mrs. Nettle and the backdrop."

"I know Danny…" she walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. "But it's really dangerous. What if you get caught? What if Sam or Tucker get caught? Trespassing is an offensive crime you know."

"What's the worse they can do to us?" I smirk. I've taken a lot more dangerous things than human policemen, and I've talked with Sam and Tucker about it too. They wouldn't let me go alone, a_s usual._ And truthfully, Tucker can hack in the security system better than me. "We'll be fine."

She sighed heavily. "Well, I tried. And I'm sure the thought of the security footage being already in the hand of the cops went through your mind?"

I smirk. "Sam thought of that. She said everything has a backup in our school, files of students and all for just in case purposes. So even if they did send the footage, there has to be a copy somewhere around there."

A flicker of security flashed in her eyes before going back to worry again. "Try to keep out of trouble."

I nodded seriously and flew out into the night.

* * *

It was a pretty cold night. Lucky for me the air just passed through, being intangible and all. I mentally reassessed the plan as I flew over to the Foley residence. Fly them to school and never let go. I had to keep all of us invisible, so the cams won't catch us in the act. Though I think Sam's got that department covered. Well anyway, while that's happening, Tucker has to hack into the mainframe and find the 'backup' files of the security footages of last week and this one. We save it to a USB and fly back home. _It'll be a piece of cake. We get in and get out. _

I finally see Tucker's bedroom window and phase through it. He was on his desk searching through the drawers.

"Tuck." I whispered. He lifted his hand behind him signaling me to wait for a minute. I sigh and cross my hands over my chest.

"Aha!" he fished out a hard-drive and quickly slipped it into his backpack.

"Ready?" I ask. He nods and zips up his jacket. I grab the straps of his bag and fly us out towards our next stop.

The Manson's residence is probably the most elite house I've ever been in. It's huge! I have to admit that the tall columns and double front doors are intimidating, but the inside is quite cozy. I've been to Sam's room multiple times, and even though it's filled with dark colors, it has a sense of warmth to it.

I steer myself and Tucker to Sam's open window and find her sitting with her feet dangling down.

"Took you long enough." She grinned at us. I couldn't help but return the favor.

Then I noticed the Polaroid camera she was holding.

"Uh, we're not going to take pictures on this mission are we?" I asked.

"I thought the whole point of stealth is to not let the enemy know you're there." Tucker pointed out, but seemed to have a spark of interest in the device.

Sam rolled her eyes. "You'll see." Was all she said after.

I held out my hand for her to take. She took it without hesitation and I freely allowed my powers to flow into her. Now I had Tucker on one hand and Sam on the other. With one quick blast up, we were racing in the direction of Casper High.

My anticipation started to grow as we neared the school. I guess it was a mix of both excitement to see what the videos caught and that we were more or less trespassing. Finally we reached the grounds and I landed softly on the cold tile floors. A few guards on duty were fast asleep so we had no trouble sneaking in. I kept my hold on my friends firm though. We crept as silently as we could till we reached the security room. I easily slipped us all in through the 'STAFF ONLY' door.

Tucker gawked at all the computer screens that were on there.

"There must be one in every corner." Our techno-geek awed. "There's even one in this very room!"

Still holding their hand, I felt Sam pulling on my right.

"Danny, can you fly me up there?" she pointed at the camera above us.

"Are you crazy?" I whispered loudly. "If they catch you, you're done for."

I felt her sigh and guessed she rolled her eyes at me. "I'm going to take a picture of the room, then place it in front of the cam so it's like nothing happened."

"Why will we do that when we can just stay invisible?" I asked.

"So you're alright with keyboards being pressed down on their own? And files being retrieved and saved to an unknown folder all on their own?" her voice was thick with sarcasm.

"She does have a point." Tucker commented.

"Okay, I give in." I pulled both of them up and let Sam take a photo, she slipped it in front of the lenses and finally I was able to let them go. I didn't realize using your powers on someone else took so much energy.

Tucker cracked his knuckles and brought out his USB. "Let's get hacking." He smiled almost maliciously before attacking the server.

Sam looked around the many divided screens around us, making sure we didn't have any unwanted visitors. I went to the door and peeked outside just to be sure.

"I feel like we're in a Mission Impossible movie." Sam snorted.

"You and me both." I agreed.

"So what do you think will we find out?" she tilted her head to the side where the computers were.

"I'm not sure. But whatever we find, I hope it's useful." I remembered the conversation I had with Ms. G in her office. How much fear was in her eyes, and how completely color drained she became. Did she know something? _The darn ghosts really do have the worst timings, _I thought to myself. I went back to the office after the ghost fight, but she was gone. Time wasn't on my side either, Mr. Lancer made sure all his main characters were on stage practicing. Every time I tried to sneak out, he'd catch me. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if he really does have eyes at the back of his head.

"Earth to Danny." Sam snapped her fingers in front of me. I shook myself mentally to get a grip and bring back to the situation at hand. "You seem a little spacey."

"Sorry." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Were you saying something?"

She raised a brow and eyed me carefully. "Is something on your mind?"

I had to tell someone right? "I had a conversation with Ms. G, and it's making me uncomfortable."

"Ms. G? You were in the nurses' office? Why?" she looked at me a little surprised.

"Painting. I had a battle with one of the ghosts the night before and I really took a beating on the shoulder. Thankfully my ghost powers healed up the bruise over night, but it was still sore." I tell her honestly.

"Oh." she straightened her already straight posture and gestured for me to continue.

"You were with Ms. G?" Tucker said as he typed furiously without taking his eyes off the screen. "How'd it go?"

Sam grinned at him. "A little too old for you don't you think Foley?"

"All women are fine Manson." Tucker glanced at her with a lopsided grin. "Especially beautiful ginger head nurses."

"Gross." Sam snickered. "So what were you guys talking about?" she looked at me.

I walked up next to Tucker and leaned on the table beside him. "It was weird how quiet it can be in the clinic, so I asked her if the room was sound proof or something." I looked up trying to remember the details of the conversation. "Because anyone passing by should have heard Mrs. Nettle struggle right?"

"That is true." Sam said.

"So yeah, it turns out the room is soundproof to some extent; except for the space under the door." I said. "She got all tense and weird… I tried to console her, told her it wasn't her fault. But she looked like she was about to burst or something."

Tucker had stopped typing and looked at me with curiosity. Sam on the other hand brought up a finger to her chin, she had one hand tucked under her elbow, and her mind seemed to be deep in thought.

"I told her she had no idea what was going to happen, but it made her agitated all the more. Honestly, even I started to feel unsure." I frowned at the memory. "But before I could do anything, there was a ghost attack."

"Whoa." Tucker leaned on his chair. "Is she begging us to suspect her?"

We looked at Sam who looked back at us with calculating eyes. "We'll know for sure once we get a look at those cameras."

We all turned towards the screen where Tucker was currently downloading a file.

_87% complete._

Suddenly we heard the clicking of someone's footsteps closing in on us. "Oh crap." I heard Sam whisper under her breath.

"Hurry up Tuck." I took my stance in front of the door. _I really hoped it wouldn't come to this. _

The door knob slowly twisted and the door creaked slightly. We all held out breaths.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"Oh my gosh!" Tucker wheezed. "That was close!" He was gripping on his unzipped bag for dear life, and Sam was currently curling her arms around me.

I would be lying if I said I didn't like the feeling, with Sam I mean. But right now we were about twenty feet in the air dashing towards Tucker's house. I didn't have time to hold all of them comfortably so here we have me, holding onto Tucker's shirt with him holding onto his bag with the USB in one hand, and Sam, dangling on my waist.

"Too close." The Goth restated and tightened her grip. I didn't know whether my heart was racing because of her or because we almost got caught stealing files.

_It's probably 'cause of her. _

"It's alright now." I assured them. "We're safe." I couldn't help but feel responsible for almost getting us into a pit of trouble.

"What about that picture you took Sam?" Tucker looked up at her. "Won't people notice something being put in front of the cam?"

"No one will notice the picture. Danny was holding me the first time I slipped it in, and we were invisible. When I let it go, then it turned visible. So I'm pretty sure no one would notice." She explained. "And as for taking it back, Danny went _Invis-o-Bill_ again." Sam took the photo out from her pocket and showed it to us.

Finally we reached the Foley's residence. It was 12:27 am, who knew sneaking into the school's security system and copying their folders took so much time. Without any delay, the Techno-geek rushed towards his computer and pressed the on switch. He typed something down and slipped the USB in before transferring the data to his own built-in hard drive.

"Right, we have two options." Tucker swiveled his chair to face us. "One, we watch this tonight and probably spend the entire night doing so. Two, I send it to your e-mails, and you guys watch it on your own."

Sam tried to stifle a yawn. "It's late, and tomorrow Lancer wants us _bright and early_, remember?"

"I think it'll be better if we all watch it together." I told them. "Tomorrow after school."

"Good plan." Tucker stretched openly on his desk chair. "You guys better head home now, and no detours." He smirked at us.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam put a hand on her hips and glared at him.

I rolled my eyes at them, hoping the blush on my cheeks weren't visible. "Oh, come on." I said, before picking her up bridal style.

Tucker shot me a knowing look before going back to getting ready for bed.

* * *

"He can be so annoying sometimes." The Goth beauty in my arms crossed her own arms over her bag. We flew a little bit higher this time.

"But you love him anyway." I said, taking a right at the corner.

"He's lucky he's my friend, or I would've killed him years ago." She muttered.

I chuckled at her irritation. Sometimes Sam and Tucker's relationship remind me of mine and Jazz. They're always ready for a fight. Always bickering about nonsensical things, but they still got each other's backs. That's why I'm not worried if I leave those two alone, because I know they would keep each other safe.

From time to time I would wonder what kind of relationship I have Sam. I mean for Tucker and I; we'd always be bros. But if it wasn't obvious enough, I don't think Sam would like the idea of us being 'bros'. And to make it fair, neither do I. I'll admit it, I do want more. I can just feel there's more. If I take the first step, will she do it as well? Or will I just ruin the entire friendship between us.

"Danny, you missed my house." Sam tugged on the logo on my suit.

I stopped flying and looked around. "Wha- oh, crap… Sorry." I said a little flustered, _real smooth Fenton..._

She laughed a little. _Music to my ears. _"That's okay."

Looking around again, I realized we were at the park. It looked really different at night, though a few of the lights were on, it was only enough to make out the shapes and shadows a few feet from it. As soon as I touched the ground, the smell of wet grass and trees intoxicated my nostrils. Nature's aroma always seemed to calm me down.

"Wanna take a short walk?" Sam pointed to the fountain at the end of the park. Since it was the middle of the night, there was no one in sight. I stole a glance at her and smiled before turning into Fenton.

"Sure, why not?" I said.

We walked slowly, enjoying each others' company. It was a very relaxing walk. I suddenly wished we would never reach that fountain. Stupid right? But hey, I blame it on love. Yep, right there and then, under the moonlight that shone perfectly on my best friends raven hair and the way the stars seemed to actually reflect their sparkle in her eyes, I just knew that feeling in me was so much more than a simple crush. I've always known she was important, but now, it's like that, and times a million.

But then there's the "don't-fall-in-love-with-your-best-friend-unless-you-want-to-risk-everything" rule. I mentally sighed not knowing Sam saw my shoulders slightly slump down.

"You alright Danny?" She touched my arm in concern. "You seem a little out of it."

"I'm fine." I sounded more like I was trying to reassure myself than her. I tried again with a smile, but she didn't buy it. Darn her and her sharp eyes. I knew she wouldn't let it go until she got her answer, so I decided to change the subject. "Let's toss a coin in before I fly us home."

Sam arched her brow at me and pursed her lips together. "Fine. But I'm gonna find out what you're hiding sooner or later you know."

I replied with a nervous toothy grin. _Safe, _for now. I dug into my pants pocket and brought out a coin. Sam did the same and now we were both standing in front of the stone marbled fountain. She closed her eyes and breathed in quietly, her mouth barely moving as she silently made her wish and tossed the coin into the air. Her eyes followed it up and watched it splash into the bottom of the fountain. While that was happening I couldn't take my own eyes off her. The fireflies had come out now, and their soft humming glow made the atmosphere kind of…_distracting_… She noticed me staring and turned to look at me.

"Are you going to make a wish or not?" she asked.

I shook my head to get the lingering thoughts of Sam out of my head, which was hard considering she was standing right in front of me. I flicked the coin up and after a second, heard it splash and sink to the bottom.

Finally she smiled and clasped my hand. I felt my stomach turn into knots.

"Let's go home."

I smiled back and went ghost before pulling her closer to me. We flew up into the air and proceeded to her house.

* * *

**A/N:****It came to my attention that this story (so far) is desperately lacking a little more fluff, and yes**, I decided to leave you guys (still) hanging on what they will find out in those security footage ;-) 


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N:**** Okay my dear readers, I have put up a poll on my profile page. Please please please vote, because I really don't know who you guys want to end up with Tucker. So again, please, there are only two choices so it shouldn't be too difficult. It would help me greatly. Though you better hurry, I'm already writing Chapter 11 and my patience is not _that _high. I think a week should suffice? Great.**

**Other than that announcement, I don't have anything else to say. So, enjoy! **

* * *

Chapter 10

Sam's P.O.V

Last night's events, or rather, earlier this morning's events, were replaying in my head repeatedly. We had snuck inside the school after hours, _'borrowed' _surveillance footage from the security system, almost got _caught _in doing so, but thankfully Danny was fast enough to phase us through the roof just as Tucker's USB indicated that the file transfers were complete, lastly, mine and Danny's little impromptu walk. It was… nice. Just his presence alone has this effect on me, like I feel safe, and at home. Is that weird?

Right now we're in History class, but my mind had uncharacteristically tuned out my teacher's voice. I would usually listen for the reason that that's usually where all the test answers come from (also because of an old saying that goes _once is enough for a wise man_), sad to say though, my brain isn't cooperating. It's most likely the anxiety I'm feeling with the thought of watching the recorded footage later tonight. What were we going to find? What should I expect? _Who s_hould I expect?

Then maybe later after we find out, a new set of questions will start bothering me. For example; _why? _Why did they have to do what they did? I mean seriously, they hung a teacher with a noose on stage for everyone to see. Crazy much? No, insane. Whoever that person was, is definitely a worse fruitloop than Vlad.

It was the bell that brought me back from my reverie. And since it was last period, everyone rushed out the door before our teacher could say anything else. Soundlessly I put the books in my bag and headed for the door as well. Danny and Tucker were already waiting for me. From the looks of it; they seemed to be feeling the same thing I was a moment ago. After rehearsals (again, since we also had one in first period) we were going to head home and finally find out who was behind all this.

* * *

"No no no. Mr. Fenton, please try to give in a little more feelings, and less stiffness." Mr. Lancer pinched the bridge of his nose the third time today. Danny nodded sheepishly.

He waved off his clip board in front of him and gestured for Dash to come forward.

"Alright, in this scene Christine will be walking in the cemetery, Phantom will be in the mausoleum trying to get the girl on his side. Raul, you swoop in and save her."

Simple enough.

The music started, I sang a little half heartedly, but not too much that Mr. Lancer notices. The thoughts of later tonight were still itching on my nerves, so I tried distracting myself with the well made props around me. The tombstones were super cool. Valerie and the rest of the backstage crew brought these things home to paint, and the results were superb. The fake snow wasn't used yet though. That was going to be for the real event.

On the ground were plenty of 'X' marks. You could've guessed the use of that. The dancers have white tape X's, where they have to be in the start, and where they have to be in the finish. I have purple X's, though it's only for some scenes. Danny's are red, very bright red actually, it kind of stand out. His is probably the most important because we have a few tricks in our sleeves to make this play even more entertaining than it already is. Yep, trap doors. Under the stage, there's like a whole different area. It's got loads of pillars of course to keep the stage up right, and thick enough to hold it in place so it doesn't come crashing down.

Maybe 'trap doors' isn't the exact word to use here. Anyways, it's like one of those dumbwaiters you see on T.V. (or in my house). There's a platform way down below the stage and it goes up with just a click of a button. All I have to do is step on it, and a small square shaped floor board opens up and ta-da, Danny _Phantom_ appears (whoa that's creepily accurate). The X's are also marked with numbers, that way we know which one to be on first before moving on.

I spotted a yellow X as I walked down the rows of tombstones and silently reminded myself that _that_ is where Dash will be after confronting the Phantom. _So I should be here… and then – _

Yet again today my thoughts were disrupted. But this time it wasn't a screaming bell.

"Dash!" someone from the backstage yelled. It was Paulina.

I turned around where Dash was just a few seconds ago, he was just about to come to his X marked spot next to me but instead I just saw air. Turning towards Danny, he had a look of utter shock. Without hesitating he grabbed my hand and pulled me towards the growing crowd on the stage. There was a hole that was not supposed to be there.

"What happened?" Mr. Mathews came running from the changing/costume room with a tape measure around his neck and a pillow cushion of pins strapped around his bony wrist. "I heard a scream, was another prop ruined?"

His thick English accent dazed me slightly. I was in no position to say anything because I had no clue either to what the heck just happened.

"Mr. Baxter!" Mr. Lancer came up next. He peered into the hole with worry written all over his face. "Please, answer me!"

Half the boys already started making their way down there a few seconds after Paulina screamed. So I'm guessing he's not alone.

"I'm fine." Dash groaned in pain.

"Nothing broken." Another voice said. "But he hit his back pretty hard."

"I said I'm fine." The jock hissed as he tried to straighten up and stand on his own, which of course he failed and ended up having to lean on Kwan.

They managed to bring him back up without much hindrance. At the corner of my eye I saw Mr. Lancer say something brief to Mr. Mathews before jogging towards the boys with Dash. I watched them go, still unsure of what I was supposed to be feeling. _Never mind that, his heart is still beating, _my mind said to me, _you need to find out what just happened, the boards were fine, they don't just break. _

Suddenly a mental note of the kids with broken legs on the news paper clippings flashed in my head. I felt sick and cold thinking what could've happened to Dash if he fell feet first.

It's the phantom. It has to be!

"Students." Mr. Mathews called out getting our attention. "Mr. Lancer instructed me to make sure all of you head home safely right away. He'll be calling Dash Baxter's parents and we promise you that he will be fine."

The crowd looked nervous. Some were murmuring softly to themselves while others tried to keep busy with putting the props away. I didn't want to eves drop but I heard it anyway, most of them were whispering the same words. _Accidents_ and _curse._

I felt something move beside me. Danny was bending towards the newly made hole. He touched the broken board panels.

"I think it was tampered with…" he said quietly. Tucker and I exchanged confused glances before bending down.

I studied the little cracks and splinters, Tucker too. My hands reached to the undersides of the board and what I felt somehow didn't surprise me. Looking around to make sure everyone was busy; I tapped on Danny's shoulder.

"Let's take a closer look." I said.

He nodded before we climbed down the side stairs and under the stage. We found the debris fairly easily. Studying it like I did with the hole, my presumptions were correct. I didn't know if it was a good thing, or bad.

"You're right." My voice sort of seemed loud in the quiet surroundings. "Someone drilled holes under the stage." I held up the piece of broken wood and showed them the semi circles in the edges.

"Hey what's this?" Tucker was pointing at a pile of dust. Something was glinting underneath it. He picked it up to find a red ball point pen.

"A pen?" I tiled my head to the side.

Danny's eyes grew a little wide. "I think that's Ms. G's."

* * *

**A/N:**** Did it appeal to you guys? :D I certainly hope so! Don't forget to vote who you want Tucker to be with! Poll's in my profile.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N:**** Finally finished chapter 11. I was actually going to post it a few days ago, but I thought it would be better if I added a little more. Well, here it is. **

**Enjoy~**

* * *

Chapter 11

Danny's P.O.V

_Ms. G as a suspect? _Doubtful…

I played with the pen on my fingertips as Tucker adjusted the wires to hook up to his laptop. Sam was helping him with it; it was her house after all. The big screen was all in static-mode and for the most part, the only source of light in the room.

_But is it possible? _Yes.

Anyone could have done it, and it's times like these that it's crucial not to be biased. Besides, Ms. G already had me guessing. Firstly because she was the last person to see Mrs. Nettle, and second, her reaction when I asked those questions were enough to put her in my list of suspects.

Sighing to myself I decided before going into any conclusions, I'd at least have to see the surveillance. So I focused instead on the popcorn machine at the far corner of the room which had a monkey with cymbals in its hands. It somehow reminded me of the music box the Phantom in the play has with him. Furthermore just like the costumes, it gave me a strange vibe. I saw Mr. Mathews studying it so passionately earlier today in the changing room. It almost looked like he was staring at some kind of precious gem.

"Don't you find that thing creepy Sam?" I called out to her. She looked at me a little confused till I pointed at the little monkey.

She snorted playfully and shrugged. "I never really paid much attention to it."

"It does look disturbing. Its eyes are literally bulging out." Tucker joined in. "But it makes awesome popcorn so it's all good."

That last comment left us all laughing. Sam playfully nudged Tucker's shoulder and rolled her eyes. I let the subject drop and continued to fiddle around with the pen.

"So, how do you know it's Ms. G's?" Sam spoke up glancing at the pen.

I stopped playing with it and clutched it in my palms. "I saw her using it back when I asked for a heat patch."

Sam nodded understandingly.

Finally the big screen flashed the desktop of Tucker's laptop. His wallpaper was blank and my eyes trailed on the cursor which was opening a decent amount of files. The video showed up next: 'Security Footage' as its title.

We all became silent, the mouse just hovering over the video. Tucker looked at us questioningly and suddenly my jitters from earlier came back. _This is it…_ I told myself. No turning back now, we're finally going to be able to see who the culprit is. Now if only my vocals weren't being so uncooperative.

"Play it." Sam said the words that were stuck in my throat. She sank into the seat next to me and hugged a cushion to her chest looking just as jumpy.

"Wait." Their eyes were on me. "Are we going to watch this camera by camera?"

"We'll just play the ones in the stairs for now." Tucker assured.

"Right… okay." I said watching the screen.

He hit play and the recorded footage of that unfortunate day started. Multiple students were walking up and down the stairs oblivious to what was going to happen next. Tucker, Sam and I included. I saw ourselves walk past the camera, talking about something it seemed. At the back of my mind, I tried to remember what it was.

After a few more minutes the halls and stair way was completely empty. Class must've started. It was quiet some more till the video started acting up.

"What's wrong with it?" Sam straightened from her seat.

Tucker rolled out of his bean bag and got up next to his laptop. He checked with the wires and the connection before drawing a blank.

"Uh, Danny." He pointed at the projector on the ceiling. "Can you see if its cable is loose or something?"

I nodded, then changing into Phantom I flew up to see what was wrong. But there wasn't anything to see.

"All the wires are securely in place if that's what you asking." I called back down to him.

"Hm. Well there's nothing wrong down here…" but his sentence was cut off with Sam's voice.

"It's Mrs. Nettle!"

We all centered our attention to the buzzing screen. Seeing her looking so 'normal' and happy, I felt a slight ache in my chest, and judging from Sam and Tucker's expressions, they missed her as much as I did. Who would seriously hurt her? Heck, even the A-listers like her.

She started walking up the stairs then all of a sudden, the screen went haywire. The video lagged, and buzzed some more till it completely went static. Tucker, Sam and I checked and rechecked all the cables again. But as before, it was all perfectly stable.

It lasted for about a minute or so before the video came back to life as if nothing happened. We all stopped what we were doing.

I gulped down a knot as I saw Mrs. Nettle on the ground. Sam faintly gasped, her finger tips lightly brushing on her lower lip, while Tucker's eyes were wide and glued to the screen with a look of confusion.

Mrs. Nettle's books and folders scattered everywhere, and her face was crumpled into a painful grimace. A small line of blood was oozing down from her nose, so I deduced the person behind this pulled her from the back. She must've hit herself on one of the stair edges and rolled down like a ragdoll. Thankfully she wasn't all the way up the steps. She looked dazed though.

Ms. Tetzlaff came running in next, she looked like she asked her something before hoisting her up and making their way to the clinic. Then the video went quiet again.

* * *

"What the heck just happened?" Tucker was the first to break the silence.

"Yes. What was that?" Sam furrowed her brows in disarray. "The cameras just lagged the moment the crime was committed?"

Meanwhile on the screen, Ms. Tetzlaff was walking up the stairs and was heading towards our wing. _This must've been the time she told us about it, _I said to myself and shuddering slightly as the memory of it.

"Play the other videos." I instructed. "The camera for the hallway where her back was facing. That one should have the culprit in the scene."

Tucker didn't need to be told twice, he searched the files and found the icon of a camera that was opposite of the first. Without hesitating this time he clicked play and sped up the video to when Mrs. Nettle was walking. And just like the last, the video started to act up again. It buzzed and contrasted and finally gave out turning it to nothing but static. After a minute, again we saw the pained expression of our teacher and I imagined she saw red spots in her vision. Ms. Tetzlaff came right on cue, then silence.

"I – I don't get it." I stammered looking for the right words.

Sam crossed her arms and shook her head irritated. "Looks like our culprit was _very_ lucky."

"Emphasis on the VERY." I ran a hand a hand through my hair in frustration.

"It's strange how both the cameras faltered at the same time." Tucker pointed out.

Placing my elbows up on my knees, I surrendered my head to my hands. "I thought we'd solve this tonight."

Sam groaned something along the lines of _'This can't be happening'_.

Tucker frowned and unplugged the connection device of the projector. The screen went fuzzy again just like before we started.

"I guess we're back to square one." he stated deadpanned. "Well, sort of."

He gestured towards the slight bulge in my pocket where Ms. G's pen rested.

* * *

The word right now that best describes how I feel would be _disappointed. _Okay maybe that word is a little too tame. We all were all _a lot_ more than disappointed with the fact that we didn't learn anything about who is behind all this. Whoever that person was, they sure are loaded with four-leafed clovers and horse shoes, maybe you can find a rabbits foot somewhere in their pockets as well.

After spending nearly 20 minutes drowning ourselves deeper into the 'almost' bottomless pit of dissatisfaction, Sam took the initiative to try and bring our spirits back up. At the moment I'm in the kitchen with her scooping up large amounts of chunky ice-cream. We all settled for a movie to temporarily make ourselves forget about what was supposed to happen, but didn't.

"There's nothing we can do about it now you know." Sam said out of the blue.

"I know that Sam." I said with a hint of glumness shadowing my words.

"On the bright side, we can ask Ms. G about her pen. She's bound to answer something right?" she smiled a little to reassure me.

I gave a smaller smile back. She was right, we still had one lead. Hopefully that won't backfire like this one just did. I reached out for the chocolate syrup in front of me, mentally reminding myself that Tucker wants his with extra chocolate, without noticing Sam reaching in for it at the same time. Our finger tips brushed and I could've sworn I felt an electric surge pass through me.

She cleared her throat as a very faint blush dusted her cheeks. I was too busy looking at her to realize the same heat creeping to my face.

"You first." She pushed the bottle towards me.

"Thanks." It was my turn to snap out of the short trance. Timidly I took it and squeezed it into mine and Tucker's bowls of ice-cream.

Before I could pass it to her though, we were interrupted by the sound of heavy fast footsteps. Turning our heads towards the door we found Tucker clutching the doorframe. His eyes sparked with some kind of excitement.

"Tuck?" I studied him a little quizzically.

"I think I got something from the footage."

That was all he had to say to make us bolt for the basement.

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**Oh and for the poll on who you guys want Tucker to end up with, Valerie or Jazz... Can we have a drum roll please?**

**... ... ...*drum rolls*... ... ... ...**

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**Aaannddd... ... ...You shall find out later in the story! :D**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Chapter 12! Finally! And I know I missed a week or two (or three) to upload anything, but here it is now. And in this chapter I used an idea from Sarapsys, a DiviantArt artist, whose back story for the Box Ghost was superb. You can check it out, but that would be _spoilers_ to the future chapters~. Just saying... **

**Enjoy~**

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Chapter 12

"So what exactly are we looking at here?" Sam asked, raising a brow at Tucker.

I have no idea how he did it, but he managed to play all the footage at the same time. Imagine the projector screen divided into different parts, each with its own record. So it was like the big security monitor back in school.

Tucker pointed out to the consecutive statics recurring in the footage.

"The static doesn't come at the same time." He started. "You see those cameras at the far end of the left side? That's camera 1 and 2, which are positioned at the school entrance. Cam 3 is positioned at the far corner facing the East wing, and Cam 4 is facing the West. It goes on like that, 5, 6, 7… they're all scattered around the corridors, in front of classrooms, inside classrooms. You get the gist."

Then he clicked open another tab on his task bar. It was the layout of the school. He began to explain how he arranged the cameras according to what he sees in the recording and managed to get a rough digital sketch on where everything was placed.

The static in each recording continued to buzz behind Casper High's map. Our Techno-geek divided the screen again to show both the recording and the improvised map all together. I waited for the cameras to replay from the start again and followed the statics along with the map starting with Cam 1 as well as 2, and that was when everything started clicking in place.

Stealing a glance at Sam, I found her wide-eyed with realization.

"It's moving." I voiced for the both of us.

_Of course! How did we not see this before? _It was so obvious. The lags, and the distortion. It was so clear.

"Technus." We all said in unison.

Just then my breath turned cold and a thin wisp of icy blue air slipped out of my mouth.

* * *

Maybe I should clue you guys in. Technus was this ghost that we encountered over a year ago, more or less. He's the ghost whose obsession was technology, and he _tried_ to hook me up with Valerie. At the time you could say I was in the state of close-to-major-infatuation. I mean, I finally found a girl who likes me for me! Er, cross out the ghost half part. She was hell-bent on killing that one…

Well not anymore, since she kinda figured out my secret along the way of us being 'just friends'.

It started with IM's, and Technus witnessed the entire exchange. I was up all night getting to know this former A-lister, and she wasn't really all that bad. I found out what her favorite color was; her favorite fruit, and all that junk.

After that came the dates.

It was more of an impromptu now that I think about it, but it turned out really well in the end. Like, really, _really, _well. The lights of the restaurant died and candles were being given around to the tables. That must've been the most romantic atmosphere yet, but I was proven wrong, because after that we got tickets to a football game, courtesy of Val's dad and Axion Labs. Turns out, our seats were the winning numbers to free tickets to the fair.

That was _it_ back then, I decided to believe that someone somewhere up there really loved me. The next date was just as good as the last two, but the highlight of that night was at the top of the Ferris wheel.

Have you guessed it yet? If you did, and you're guess was it stopped at the very top then you have guessed right my friend.

When she leaned on my shoulder and flashed me that smile of pure ecstasy, I honestly didn't mind if that wheel never came back down.

But that was the past. My friends told me it was all Technus' doing. Tucker and Sam figured it out because of the static in his 'Baby' PDA whenever something _good _happens in my date. Imagine the irony in all of it. Every time I think it's because the higher ups wanted me to be with this girl, it was actually because Technus was sticking his nose in where it didn't belong. Maybe if he didn't, Valerie and I wouldn't have gone that far.

In the end Valerie decided to put down what we could've had, and I couldn't do anything about it. And just like that, my first real girlfriend-material friend just walked away, leaving nothing but a kiss on the cheek to remember her by.

It's all good now though. We became great friends once Fenton and Phantom finally molded itself into one in her head. Yeah, she had a sort of hard time grasping it and apologized by the bucket load for all those times she actually tried to end me. Man, how the tables have turned since then.

"Danny, over there!" Sam brought her binoculars down and pointed at the direction of Amity Park.

Flying to that route I thought of all the nasty ways I could get Technus to spill. Well, _I hope that ghost's Technus. _Sam and Tucker followed close behind with Fenton weapons at arms and thermoses safely tucked in their backpacks.

As soon as I reached the spot Sam claimed to have seen something, I stopped and surveyed the area.

"BEWARE! I am the Box Ghost!" an all too painfully familiar voice cried out.

I evidently groaned at it and turned around to face my annoying foe. Giving him a short glare, I flew down to Tucker's backpack and phased my hand in and took out the thermos. Both he and Sam had the same deadpanned expression as I did when their eyes landed on the supposed enemy.

"I don't have time to deal with you, Box Ghost." I said dryly and pointed the thermos at him.

"No! Not that cylindrical shaped abomination!" He pointed an accusing finger at me and shot up into the sky. "Never!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "Why do they always run?"

"He's heading towards the direction of the box factory." Tucker stated, holding up his PDA which was locked on the ghosts' ecto-plasmic radiation.

"Go figure." I commented. "Well, let's finish this quickly."

Wrapping my hands on both their waists, I shared my powers and lifted them off the ground weightlessly. It was much easier to do that than to have them dangling on either side of my arms. I flew up higher to gain a little leverage and then followed towards the Box Ghosts' trail.

Flying swiftly but carefully, so not to attract attention, we reached the factory in less than 10 minutes. I slowly descended and let go of Tucker and Sam right behind a large crate. We peeked to see the ghost piling up stacks of empty cardboard boxes. Watching him a little more carefully, he actually looked like he was searching for something – again.

"No." The Box Ghost grumbled. "Not here. No. No. No… not here…"

Yes, I said '_again_'. After Sam and Tucker (mostly Tucker) decided to help Jazz with her study on Ghost's Psychology, they have been observing why ghosts do what they do, based on their obsessions. It wasn't like I hadn't seen this coming; my sister must be a daughter of Athena for all I know, because she literally craves for knowledge. So far, what she came up with was that ghosts have obsessions to keep them grounded. Like Skulker's was hunting, and Ember's was music, of course that's just the tip of the 'iceberg', as my know-it-all sister would have put it. She wants to go as far as to know their past as well. Don't ask me why, she just does.

We did learn a little about the wishing ghost Desiree. She was a harem girl who won the affections of a sultan. He showered her with whatever gifts her heart desired, but was later on banished by the Sultan's jealous wife. When she died, of age, and a broken heart, she came back granting people their deepest desires but with a price. She gets to interpret the wish however she wanted to, which is unfortunate for the person she's granting the wish to.

I could go on with what my sister and friends managed to dig up on the ghosts, but that would be irrelevant at the moment. So back to what was happening right in front of us; the Box Ghost had already made a 6 foot tall stack of carelessly dropped brown cardboard boxes. It wasn't the first time this happened, but every time it does, it sort of makes me feel sorry for the guy.

Apart from being ignored by everyone because of his lame obsession to haunt boxes, whenever he does go 'search-mode' like this, I can't help but see a little longing in his eyes. Like whatever he's looking for is really significant. But judging from what I know about this guy, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a clue on what he's searching for either.

"Alright, enough." I stepped out of our hiding spot and started to uncap the thermos. "C'mon Boxy, into the thermos you go."

"Wha-?" he swiveled around looking surprised. "How did you find me?"

"Dude, you go anywhere where you can find a box." Tucker said. "And I got a lock on your ecto-plasmic radioactivity."

I pointed the thermos at the ghost for the second time that day and switched it on, but he flew away just before the blue ray could suck him up. Without a second to spare I chased after him, blasting a few things in front of him to slow him down. When that didn't work, I tried aiming for him instead.

"Ugh, just stay still already!" I yelled in frustration and aimed at him once more.

"No, I have to keep looking!" he retorted.

When you have someone like my sister hanging with you both inside and outside of home, you tend to pick up a few things whether you like it or not. And probably this one trait isn't particularly from her, since this got me to what I am today before I even considered she wasn't so stuck up and annoying, I was still having that itch at the back of my head that presently refused to leave no matter how much I turned a blind eye to it. Curiosity.

"What are you looking for anyways?" I know curiosity killed the cat, but maybe if I learn a little more about this guy, I can somehow stop him from constantly bugging Amity Park with his love of boxes or anything square. And probably distract him enough to get him into the blasted thermos.

"I – I don't know…" his speed was decreasing slightly as he slowed down to think. _I was right; this guy really doesn't have a clue. _On the bright side, my plan was working.

I sped up a little to get a better aim, and I was just about to fire when clueless here suddenly decided to act smart.

"Hey," he stopped all of a sudden and glared at me. "Why should I answer you anyway?"

I stopped abruptly as he did and cocked an eye brow at him. "You, don't even know what you'relooking for." I pointed out.

He grunted in anger and rose up hundreds of boxes and hurtled them towards me. Instinctively I formed an X with my arms to protect my head and turned intangible, letting all the projectiles fly straight through me. Once he noticed his actions didn't work, he grunted some more and threw twice as many boxes than the first.

"Give up already and go back to the ghost zone! Whatever you're looking for isn't here anymore." I told him, still intangible.

"No!" he shouted. Man, if I had a dollar for every time that word was said today… "It's important!"

"If it's so important, why'd you lose it in the first place?" I counter acted this time by blasting the boxes that were in my way. Taking him by surprised, I managed to blast him to a wall and sent him falling down to the pile of boxes he stacked up earlier.

He got up looking dazed for a few seconds. I flew in and snatched the thermos from my belt before he could fly away again. After he got back all his senses, he slightly gasped when he saw the 'cylindrical-shaped-abomination' right in front of his nose. A look of defeat flashed in his eyes before he surrendered completely.

"If you tell me, I could help you look for it." I offered tepidly.

I felt Sam and Tucker beside me. The ghost looked at all three of us and frowned.

"I really don't know. But I know it's – it's important." He said bleakly.

Tucker sighed. "Hurry it up Danny; we gotta look more into you-know-what back at Sam's place."

"Right." Sam agreed. "And we still haven't seen the footage from inside the auditorium."

"It's probably one of the ghosts who messed up the plays backdrop too." Tucker added.

"So it is true!" We turned our attention to the Box Ghost with surprised expressions.

"Uh, what's true?" Tucker asked.

"You guys are seriously doing that play." His complexion paled, if that was even possible for a ghost. Was he, afraid?

_No that can't be right._

"Yeah, so? And who told you?" I pulled the arm that was holding the thermos at him back to my side.

"Oh, everyone in the Ghost Zone's been talking about it." he said plainly trying to hide the slight change of pitch in his voice. "I just didn't think you people would be like, dumb enough to do it, then again…"

"Wait," Sam held up a hand. "Are you talking about the freaky legend thing?"

The ghost didn't do so much as a shrug, which we took as a yes.

"How do you know about it?" Tucker's brows knotted in question.

"Doesn't everybody?" The ghost replied in a 'DUH' tone. "It doesn't matter now though, you're all screwed if you continue on with it anyway."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked.

"Because _he'll _get you." Box Ghost whispered unsteadily as the atmosphere in the box factory got unnaturally cold and unpleasant.

"Who's going to get us?" I asked next.

He kept quiet. And for a second I thought I saw that fear again. But I dismissed it quickly. I really didn't have time to play Sherlock.

I grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled him closer to me. "Who is it? Tell me so I can beat the crap out of him!" I demanded.

He jerked away from me furiously and clamped his mouth shut.

"Was it, uh whoever you're referring to," Tucker gestured his hands in the air for emphasis, "The reason for all these mishaps going on? Our teacher, the backdrop, the stage?"

Still, the ghost remained silent for a few moments, and I wish he stayed that way because the next thing he said was completely useless to us.

"Beware." He said with a very uncomfortable silkiness in his voice, almost like he wasn't the Box Ghost at all.

_Why does everybody have to be so mysterious nowadays!_

"First Skulker, now you." I said irritated. I lifted up the thermos and sucked in the ghost without a second thought this time.

Stashing the thermos back into Tucker's backpack, I slid my arms around their hips again and flew us straight back home, and by that I mean Sam's place. Thankfully her parents aren't there to barrage us with questions of where we were and why we're out so late. _Business trip, _Sam told us earlier. And in all honesty, I don't think I could even begin to come up with anything.

Usually flying helped get my mind off things, like when people go for a drive, or shopping (I still don't understand how that helps). But no matter how much I tried to resist the memory from replaying over and over again, it just wouldn't leave me alone. The 'accident's' happening continuously; our teacher being _pulled _down the stairs, then hung by a noose, Sam almost getting squashed underneath a heavy backdrop, Dash mysteriously falling down a hole. Skulker and Box Ghost, for the love of all things good in this world, _THE_ Box Ghost, were acting all like Absolem. (If you don't know who he is, Absolem's the blue caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.)

Finally reaching Sam's mansion, I phased us quietly down from the roof to the basement before changing back into Fenton. Sam and Tucker slipped their bags off their shoulders before we all slumped on the couch with a heavy sigh. That was the most noise we made since we captured the Box Ghost, and the air around us was starting to get really thick. I felt I could slice right through it with one of my beams. Stealing a glance at the both of them, I realized they must be thinking of the same thing I was, or at least, somewhere along those lines. Tucker's brows were still scrunched up in the middle with confusion and frustration. Sam's frown deepened as I saw different emotions raging from questioning to fear flitter in amazing speed across her amethyst orbs.

We were all thinking, thinking about what to make of all that has happened so far. And hopefully after all this thinking, one of us can come up with some kind of explanation.

"_Oh, everyone in the Ghost Zone's been talking about it. I just didn't think you people would be like, dumb enough to do it, then again…" _The Box Ghost's voice sounded in my head.

_Then again – what?_ What was he going to say? And why the heck is the entire Ghost Zone talking about it? It's just a play, nothing that concerns them.

"_Bad things will happen if you do that play." _

Skulker's words echoed through my thoughts next.

"_If I were you I wouldn't do it. Wrap up the script, hide it somewhere and never open it up again."_

Hide it? If it was as dangerous as he claimed it was, then why not burn it? _Am I actually siding with a side I don't even fully understand? _I let another inward groan form at the back of my throat. This was pathetic. _If they would only tell me what on earth is going on, I can probably stop the worst from happening! Why won't they tell me anything? _

"_It doesn't matter now though, you're all screwed if you continue on with it anyway."_

It wasn't like him to be so _cryptic_ with his words, both Skulker and the Box Ghost. Usually, they'd just spit out the entire thing instead of beating around the bush like Clockwork does.

The curiosity that latched itself onto my subconscious started poking at my mind again. What was it about this play that got the ghosts all hyped up? I bet they got nothing better to do than meddle with me from time to time and probably go after their obsessions while they're at it, but really, a high school play?

"_Be afraid, be very afraid…"_

"_Beware."_

Besides the mystery of why the ghosts were getting chatty about what was happening in the human world, and how the ones I've encountered had suddenly gone through a massive personality change; _one_ question stood out more than the rest.

What has gotten them so… _scared._

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**A/N:**** I want to just say thanks again to Sarapsys~ for letting me use the idea for Boxy. Thank you! **

**Until next time my dear readers. **


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